It's Not Kissing
by Muffytaj
Summary: Katara saves Zuko's life, leaving him in her debt... but enemies bound by honour are still enemies! ZukoKatara
1. Not Kissing

_- _

_A/N: This fiction originally started out as a one-shot in my 30 Kisses collection. However, the idea grabbed me, and at my current count I have over eight chapters written. I have decided to make this an independent fiction, and have re-posted the start for clarity._

_Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to expand. This fiction is dedicated to you guys._

_-_

**Chapter One**

"Just for the record," Katara said, in case she hadn't made it clear enough yet, "this does NOT count as a first kiss."

"First kiss? You mean you haven't even had one yet?" Sokka asked smugly. Katara opened her mouth to retort, but Aang stepped in.

"Please Katara, you don't even have to kiss him, just heal him!" The object of their attentions was one bedraggled, unbreathing fire prince. Aang had decided to go surfing with the big nasty looking fish, little realising that the waves he was bending were currently in the process of first capsizing the two fire nation men's raft, and then drowning the young prince. Iroh had been saved due only to the fact that he had been sunbathing _au__ naturale_, and thus had nothing to weigh him down.

Not that this thought comforted the three young heroes. In fact, as Katara later confided to her sympathetic brother, she would rather have had to bring Iroh back to life than see _that_. Iroh merely commented on the invigorating effects of cold water, and wandered off to find something to wear.

But it was the prince who needed help, and it was Katara who was stuck with saving him.

"I wish I'd just stuck to Pakku's classes." She muttered as she drew the water out of Zuko's lungs. "But no, I had to be able to save people as well as kill them." The blob of fatal, perfectly blue water splashed onto the ground.

"He's not waking up." Aang said anxiously.

Katara's fingers pressed into Zuko's neck. "He hasn't got a pulse, that's why." She said crisply. "His heart's stopped." The boys' chatter slid into the background, taking with it the thought that Zuko was the enemy, and that they really should just let him die. There was only cold flesh beneath her touch, and a life that needed to be saved.

So she tilted his head, repositioned his body, and began saving his life. In a tiny part of her mind she reflected that as far as kisses went (which this was not) it couldn't get any less romantic. He was cold, and ikky, and she had to keep his nose covered. Within a few minutes he stirred as she thumped his heart back to work. Once more her mouth closed over his, but this time his lips moved to respond to her touch. Warmth flushed through her and for an instant she thought she understood what all the fuss was about.

Then Zuko rolled over, and threw up what appeared to be his lunch, breakfast, and last night's dinner.

No, it definitely didn't count as a kiss.


	2. Not Gratitude

**Chapter Two**

Zuko was not having a good day. Firstly, that morning he had run out of fresh water. This was a potentially lethal problem, but at the moment he was considering it one of the lesser ones. For you see the second problem was that Iroh had decided that he was tired of feeling so sticky, and was going for a swim. Naked.

Then, whilst Zuko was fighting the urge to claw his eyes out, a huge wave had crashed over them, and then there was only tumbling water and darkness and trying to swim up but which way was up and it was burning, burning, burning in a way he had never known and then -

Nothing.

For a brief moment he knew only peace, the blissful blackness of nothingness, before a sharp pain in his chest told him that his story was not yet over.

As he opened his eyes he vaguely registered that someone was leaning over him, before proceeding to throw up all over the place. How embarrassing. How on earth could he throw up that much if his stomach was empty?

His already bad day took a turn for the even worse when he saw who had just saved his life.

"You!" He tried to shout, but succeeded in only whispering. His throat felt like someone had just blasted a fireball down it.

"This young lady here just saved your life, Prince Zuko." Iroh said, placing a hand on Katara's shoulder. She winced, and looked about as ill as Zuko felt.

"I'm not cleaning that up!" Sokka piped up from the background. Zuko desperately hoped that Uncle was wearing something, because he just couldn't take any more trauma.

Luckily for Zuko's fragile mental state, Iroh had requisitioned Aang's shoulder scarf, and had arranged it artfully around his hips. Aang had kindly told Iroh that he could keep it. No, really. Aang insisted.

"You… saved my life?" He whispered as forcefully as he could to Katara.

She only nodded, and moved further away from his regurgitation.

Zuko briefly considered throwing himself back into the ocean. But no, they would probably only save him again, and then he would owe the water wench twice over.

"How can I repay you?" He asked, hating every single word that came out of his mouth. But he was not without honour, and it was well-known that if someone had saved your life you must do everything and anything you could to repay them. For until you did they owned you; your life was theirs to do with as they would.

"Forget about i-"

"Stop chasing Aang!" Sokka cut in on his sister. "That's a good way to repay us!"

"Never!" Zuko snarled and tried to sit up, only to collapse again, coughing. "Without him there is no point in keeping my honour."

"Who cares about your honour?" Sokka sneered.

"Without my honour, I would not bother to grant your wish anyway." Zuko said, then jerked his head at Katara, "Besides, it is her whose wishes I must follow, not yours."

Sokka opened his mouth to tell Zuko that is was everyone's wish that he would get lost, but then Iroh once again cut in.

"I see I am going to have to explain some of our customs to you." He said, and smiled.


	3. Not Enemies

**Chapter Three**

"So basically, Katara can ask him to do anything, anything at all, even kill himself, and he'll have to do it?" Sokka crowed in delight.

"His life is hers." Iroh said.

The two subjects of this conversation had long since wandered off, Aang using airbending to take Zuko to their camp so they could give him dry clothing, and Katara setting off to find more fresh water for them all.

"I like your honour." Sokka grinned, and wondered why Iroh laughed.

But the smile was soon wiped off his face when he returned to camp, and found Zuko in his spare pants.

"Hey!" He shouted, "Why did you have to give him _my_ stuff? He'll probably set it on fire!"

"What else were we meant to put him in?" Katara asked, irritated. "He's too big for Aang's clothing. Unless you suggest we put him in some of mine?"

"Yes!" Sokka said.

"We're not putting Zuko in a dress. End of story." Katara snapped, trying to suppress the horrific mental images that sentence invoked. Coming back to the camp to find Zuko in her brother's pants, and no shirt, had given her a nasty shock. He was meant to be ugly all over, and not look so much like a nice (very nice, actually) water tribe boy. Luckily the burn and the hairstyle, as well as his colouring, stopped her from comparing him too much to the cute guy back at the South Pole. But then that boy had been weaker than her too, she smirked.

Zuko didn't like the smirk on Katara's face, nor the murderous one on Sokka's. Sokka stalked up to him, and glared.

"Rip my pants, and you're dead." He said. Zuko just sneered in reply. Actually, Zuko was feeling a similar type of disorientation that Katara was, brought on by the fact that he had his three enemies surrounding him, and he wasn't blasting any of them. They were all relaxed, preparing food and setting up camp, almost as if their number one enemy (Zuko flattered himself with this description, but cared not) wasn't in their midst.

The sun was setting, his last chance to attack before the waterbender gained power, but instead he was sitting by the unlit fireplace, watching his uncle chop vegetables. It all felt vaguely surreal, as if it were a part of a nightmare he would soon wake up from.

"Zuko." Katara said, and he nearly jumped out of his skin. The worst part of his nightmare was tapping her foot, waiting for him to respond. "Can you start the fire for us? Not too hot though." At least she seemed to know how wrong this entire thing was – her mouth was twisted, and she looked like she was just waiting for the moon to rise before freezing him to a tree. Okay, there was an enemy, he was under their command, he could think of himself as a POW, he could handle this.

Katara, on the other hand, couldn't handle this. Zuko's face was bemused, his hair was still wet and messy, and he was looking up at her like she was his mother telling him to clean his room. He wasn't snarling at her, or screaming, or trying to kill her, and he was wearing her brother's clothing. And he had just done what she had asked without a word. It was enough to drive a girl mad!

She should have let him drown.


	4. Not Bantering

**Chapter Four**

They hit their first real snag when it was time for bed. Sokka was insisting that they couldn't trust Zuko's honour enough to let him stand guard (Iroh was slightly flattered that they didn't consider him a threat – kids today) and Zuko complaining that there were no blankets for them, and that with what little clothing they were wearing they would freeze to death.

"A firebender shivering, that would be a sight to see." Katara said quietly to Aang, but not quietly enough. Zuko whipped around to shout her, but only got his mouth open before he remembered that he was meant to be eternally in her debt. Scowling, he shut his mouth with a snap, and stalked off to Appa.

"Fine." He snarled. "We will sleep next to this… animal." He glared at his saviour, "And tomorrow I would be" he gritted his teeth, but still the words came out "_most grateful_ if you would tell me how I could repay you."

His only reply was a bark of laughter (Sokka) before being wished goodnight (Aang).

Katara said nothing at all.

"You know," Sokka whispered to her as they lay together in their sleeping bags, "you should ask him to kill himself. Or maybe make him our slave! Then we could order him to do everything for us! And we could say 'Slave Zuko, clean my socks!' and 'Slave, rub my feet!'. It would be the best thing ever."

"But then we'd have him around us all the time." Katara hissed back. "And I don't know about you, but I really don't want that. He'd probably snap one day and kill us all."

"But think of the fun we would have until then!"

"I can hear you, peasant!" Zuko growled.

"Hey, don't you call my sister a peasant!" Sokka shouted from his sleeping bag.

"I wasn't calling her a peasant, idiot! I was calling _you_ a peasant!"

"We're of the same social standing so if you call me a peasant, you're calling her one too! And that's not a very nice way to repay someone who saved your life!"

A long silence. Then, dripped in loathing:

"My… apologies. Your peasant status… does not…" each word sounded as if it were being torn straight from the prince's soul "indicate your… worth."

"That's better!" Sokka said triumphantly.

Privately, Katara wondered if Zuko thought she should have let him drown too.


	5. Not Sick

**Chapter Five**

The next morning was christened by a fit of sneezing.

"Oh no." Katara groaned, and shut her eyes.

"Now you know what it feels like, Appa." Sokka grumbled, as Zuko wiped his nose on the bison's hide.

"That's disgusting." Katara gagged, as Aang laughed.

"Do you have any tea?" Iroh asked, as he put some water on to boil. "Some lemon tea would be best for him, I believe."

Aang shrugged. "We've got fruit." He offered. "You guys finished the fish last night."

"I could always go fis- hey wait a minute why are we helping these guys? They're our enemies!" Sokka grumbled. "If he's weak enough to die from a cold then we should let him."

"Would frogs help?" Katara asked, half out of spite, half out of curiosity. "They helped us last time."

Iroh was too polite to do anything more than raise one of his eyebrows slightly. "I do not believe so." He said, but privately wondered just who on earth had been stupid enough to let these kids out into the world on their own. If he was truly their enemy, he could have killed them half a dozen times, and they thought that frogs helped colds?

In fact…

"Where are your parents?" He asked idly, but knew the moment the words were out of his mouth that this was the wrong thing to say. The previously open, comfortable air changed as Sokka and Katara's faces closed off. Aang, made uneasy by the change in atmosphere, piped up:

"I think Zuko's passed out."

By the time Zuko had informed them icily that no, he hadn't passed out, he had merely been sleeping, and furthermore he would appreciate it if they didn't poke him anymore, Sokka had gone 'to fetch more firewood' he said, and Katara no longer looked ready to tear Iroh's face off.

"Your people killed our mother," She told Iroh, whilst Aang tried asking Zuko if he liked frozen frogs, "And our father is busy fighting your troops." There was barely a tremor in her voice, and her gaze was steady.

There was a brief pause as Iroh struggled to think of the appropriate response.

"I'm sorry." He said finally.

"Me too." She shrugged, and went back to making breakfast.

Unaware of the painful history being not-told, Zuko quietly threw up last night's soup, and Appa swore revenge on the young firebender.


	6. Not Fighting

**Chapter Six**

"I don't think we're supposed to feed him anything." Katara said, considering the bowl in the middle.

"Good, more for me." Sokka said, and lunged for it. Aang quickly grabbed the bowl and held it out of Sokka's reach.

"I'm sure it's feed a cold, starve a fever!" He said.

"No, I think it's starve a cold, feed a fever." Katara said. "Or is it the other way around?"

"It is!" Aang insisted,

"Besides, he's got a cold and a fever, so what are we supposed to do? Feed half of him?"

"Good point." Aang looked thoughtful. "Maybe we should ask Iroh. Where is he, anyway?"

"He said he was going to go see if there was any food nearby." Sokka sighed, still eyeing the bowl longingly.

Katara frowned. "He should be careful, there are platypus-bears around here."

"My uncle is more than a match for a few measly platypus-bears." Zuko tried to say, only it came out more like "Bleaagh."

"See, that's why I don't think we should feed him." Katara said, pointing at mess Zuko had just made. "He'll only just throw it up again, and I don't know how many more times he can do that before Appa eats him."

"Appa's a vegetarian!" Aang protested.

"I'm sure he'd make an exception." Katara smirked. The smell of burnt meat and fur made them turn to the forest where Iroh appeared followed by a large, rather dead platypus-bear. Then, once the carcass was thoughtfully deposited next to a protesting Zuko, Iroh carefully placed an egg on the ground.

"For tomorrow's breakfast." He explained.

Aang, Katara and Sokka said nothing. There really was nothing they could say to a portly old man who had just killed a giant platypus-bear and then dragged its corpse back to camp. Except maybe 'please don't hurt me', which Sokka was giving careful consideration to.

"Unfortunately I couldn't find any lemons, so we shall have to make do." Iroh said, settling himself down onto the ground. "Luckily I remembered an old potion my grandmother used to make every time someone came down with a cold. I will need some more herbs though, which I am sure young Aang will be most helpful in procuring. I believe they are called spoilt gum, and found only on the highest of mighty mountains." And, still smiling, he sent Aang off to fly to dizzying heights, Sokka to dive to the deepest depths for coral and tiny luminous fish, and sent himself down to the river to strip and clean the platypus-bear.

Katara was stuck with the job of making sure Zuko didn't choke on his own vomit. She glared at him, before bending a bucket of water over his head.

"This is ridiculous." She grumbled as he spluttered. "You're supposed to be our enemy."

"If you think I like owing a debt to you p-, ah, Katara, you are greatly mistaken." Zuko hastily corrected himself before he could call her peasant again. He had never realized how much he associated the word peasant with her until he had to stop using it. And saying her name felt odd, as if he were using a swear word around old ladies.

"So leave!" Katara snapped, throwing a damp cloth at his face. "Leave, and go back to chasing after Aang uselessly! Stop being around us all the time!"

"My honour will not allow it!" Zuko shouted back, not noticing how much better he felt now he was fighting with Katara. This, this felt _right_. As her eyes flashed and she fairly hissed at him, Zuko started to think that maybe he could stand up and battle her.

"Well your honour is a pain in the butt." She snarled. "And besides, aren't you meant to be helping me to repay me? Getting sick isn't helping!"

"I can't help getting sick!" Zuko shouted. "If you hadn't let me stay wet for so long I-"

"Oh, so now it's my fault?" Katara stood up, huffing, "I didn't have to save your life, you know. I could have let you drown!"

"I wish you had." Zuko muttered, half to himself.

"Well fine!" Katara, hearing him anyway, glared. "Next time I'll just let you drown then!" And with a snort, she stalked off.

"Hey. Hey!" Zuko called after her, "What about my water? I'm thirsty!" In the echoing silence that followed, Zuko scowled. Yes, honour and respect the one who saved your life, he was doing a fantastic job on that. If only the etiquette books had mentioned what to do if your saviour was a half-wild water tribe brat.

Stupid honour.

**Next up: Not-hugging!**


	7. Not Hugging

**Chapter Seven**

The next day Katara still wasn't speaking to Zuko. In fact, the most interaction she had had with him was when she had laughed at him (very unkindly, he thought) when Iroh had force-fed him his 'healing draft'. Admittedly, by mid-afternoon Zuko was slightly improved, but his temper had taken a turn for the worse. How was he supposed to help his rescuer and regain his honour if she refused to talk to him?

Somewhere deep within the recesses of his mind it occurred to Zuko that maybe he should apologise, but that thought was ruthlessly crushed. She should have known that he didn't mean to be ungrateful, and she shouldn't have been shouting at him when he was ill.

Of course he also shouldn't have been shouting at her, but that was besides the point. She had to keep her part of the rescuer script, and that did not include throwing water at your weakened rescuee. It just wasn't the done thing.

Unless… here Zuko's brow furrowed in thought. The water brats didn't seem to have any notion of honour, and there was the possibility that she didn't know how to behave. Tasked with the unusual problem of trying to think from a different culture's perspective, Zuko came to the conclusion that it was pretty obvious she didn't really know how rescuers acted in the fire nation, and even more obvious that she needed someone to tell her.

In fact, his still-slightly-feverish brain decided, _he_ was going to tell her how a saviour was supposed to act, right now! He jumped to his feet, ignoring the slight tilting of the world around him, and strode off towards the river. No doubt Katara would be there, practicing her primitive waterbending, the perfect opportunity for him to explain how to do things properly.

"You!" He said as he came across the river. She seemed slightly blurry, but he ignored this. Probably some waterbending trick. She turned to look at him, and the expression on her face only made him angrier. "Look here," he said, staggering into the water, "you obviously have no idea how… how things are done. So I'm going to tell you." He jabbed her chest with his fingers, or at least tried to. She seemed to be standing a bit further back than he thought, and so he swayed off balance.

"Zuko, are you all right? You look pale… well, paler than usual."

"That's exactly it!" He said, still not entirely steady. "You need to be a proper authority figure to me! You need to be a saviour, not a brat I should crush beneath my heel."

He saw the hit coming, and moved to block it. But once again he misjudged and ended up staggering, then collapsing onto a confused and enraged Katara.

"Hey!" She shouted, catching him before he drowned himself. But he did not reply: in fact he was fast asleep, his head on her shoulders, his body slumped against hers. 'Wake up, idiot!" She said, shoving him. But Zuko had pushed himself too far whilst still too weak, and there was no waking him. His body was pressed to hers, he was still overheated from the fever, and his face felt uncomfortably warm against her shoulder, his hastened breath tickling the back of her neck. If it were not for the fact that his arms dangled by his side, she could almost have said he was embracing her.

But he wasn't. And when she wrapped her arms around him, she wasn't hugging him, she was trying to move him.

She attempted to pick him up, but he was far too heavy. She tried dragging him, but he just fell over with a loud splash. Finally, with a sigh, she waterbended some ice underneath him, and began pushing the block of ice back to the camp.

"Why me?" She asked the unconscious Zuko, but he had no answer for her.


	8. Not Naked

**Chapter Eight**

Zuko had to think of a way out of owing Katara his life. Twice, if his uncle's doom-filled pronouncements about how he would have died if left to himself yesterday. There had to be some loophole that allowed you to escape with your honour intact, especially before he killed his saviour's brother, who kept making references to inbreeding, and sickly, fainting royalty. Like he was one to talk! Zuko had seen how small his village was, and he was pretty ready to bet that brothers and sisters married there all the time. In fact, since there were no other men around Sokka had probably been all set to marry Kata-

Zuko wished that it were possible to burn memories, especially ones containing vivid mental images. The path away from sickness did not include a multicoloured image of Sokka and Katara making with the beast of two backs.

In fact, imagining his saviour naked was probably against some kind of moral code too, knowing his luck.

Not that he made a practice of it. Or had meant to. At all. Or ever would again. Ever.

Although a part of him did wonder what she looked like, underneath all that fur. Didn't she ever get hot? Didn't she ever bathe? Come to think of it, he hadn't seen any of them performing any kind of sanitary cleansing since he'd arrived. Not that he'd really been in a position to observe, but he still hasn't seen it. Not that he wanted to see it.

He shook his head. It seemed his thoughts were still confused from his illness – there was no other way to explain his circling thoughts centered on naked Katara.

But he had to bathe. He smelt of vomit and sweat, as well as old food. The fire nation prided itself on its cleanliness, with heated spas and mechanical cleaners helping them maintain their image, and get rid of the copious amounts of soot living in the fire nation deposited everywhere. And although he was not as obsessive about hot springs as his uncle, the sensation of warm water massaging his skin was one he had a weakness for.

So, naturally, he went and asked his Uncle where the closest spring was. Sokka (who, for reasons unknown to Zuko, seemed to enjoy his uncle's company far too much for an enemy, and an idiot at that) immediately started making sniggering comments about Zuko washing his 'pretty hair' and so Zuko wasn't paying as much attention to his uncle as he should have been.

"Just follow the path I made, south east until you reach – no Sokka, that is the tradition of the fire nation to wear their hair like that – it's about five minutes away. However, I don't think-"

"Thank you Uncle." Zuko cut him off, glared at Sokka, and stalked out of the campsite with as much royal dignity as he could muster. Which was quite a bit, actually.

So it came as a complete shock when all his lordly dignity deserted him about five minutes later.

In the time it took Katara to turn around from her bathing, hands splayed out as she bended the water over her naked form, Zuko had more than enough time to reflect of the wisdom of staying and hearing his uncle out. If he had, he would undoubtedly been warned that Katara had just left to bathe herself, and that Zuko would do well to steer clear of that area.

And if Iroh had had a less reprehensible sense of humour, he would have mentioned this fact first, or at least called it out to Zuko's retreating back.

As it was, he was obliged to hide his quiet laughter from an oblivious Sokka.

But Zuko knew none of this in the brief moment between seeing Katara, and her seeing him. In fact he knew nothing at all, beyond the faint feeling of satisfaction he felt at finally knowing what Katara looked like without all those furs on.

And then his brain kicked in.

"Katara, look out!" He cried, and crashed against her naked body.


	9. Not handholding

**Chapter Nine**

-

_A brief note: The reason for the delay with this chapter was that I was in hospital for a month. Yeah, I didn't exactly feel like being amusing for a while after that. Also, any other suggestions on what Zuko and Katara could 'not' do would help inspire me._

_Onto the story!_

-

At any other time Zuko would have wondered when, exactly, he felt so comfortable with using Katara's actual name. Or maybe he would have considered the fact that he was currently holding a very naked and shapely (and wet) girl down to the ground. Actually, he might have just been preoccupied with said naked girl's squirming.

Whatever he might have thought was irrelevant though, because his mind was currently completely absorbed in staying alive.

A bolt of fire crashed into the space where Katara had rested a bare moment ago. An arrow struck the spot where Zuko's head had been.

"You missed! Idiot!"

"So did you!"

"Never mind that now you two, attack!"

Five large rhinos charged into the clearing, utterly destroying the foliage around them. Zuko vaguely registered that they must have been in place hours earlier, and for some reason been precipitated into attack by his appearance, when the flailing girl underneath him struck lucky, and got a knee into his groin.

Then he was rather preoccupied with not throwing up.

"What do you think you're do…ing…" Katara, full of righteous indignation at the ex-prince for bursting in on her bath, dashing forward, yanking her out of said bath, then throwing her to the ground, took stock of the situation.

Namely, the five grown fire nation men poised to attack, leering at her naked form.

Suddenly, she wished she were back under Zuko.

Still, this was no time for thought, it was a time for action! Sliding into stance, she immediately started bending the water into a defensive shield. Set up a shield, start the attack from inside the shield, then once the enemy was down, beat the heck out of Zuko for interrupting her bath.

It should have been flawless. Except for two things: the first was that Zuko had the exact same idea at the moment she did, and heroically pulled himself up from his balled-up little huddle on the ground. His sudden upwards movement, unfortunately, knocked Katara's arm, and her still-forming shield collapsed.

The second thing was that there were five grown men who had the element of surprise as well as fire, and were not afraid to use either.

Zuko caught an arrow across his side, and Katara's right arm was burnt horrifically within seconds. One of the men threw a large chain towards them, and would have caught them then and there if Zuko hadn't managed to burn his rhino's feet. The rhino reared back in alarm and pain, smashing into the other rhinos, and for a moment the attackers were in disarray.

"Run!" Katara screamed, clutching her blackened arm, and yanking Zuko into the woods. They charged wildly into the undergrowth, the crashing sound of their pursuit driving them to the very edge of mindless terror. Branches whipped across Katara's exposed skin, and Zuko was losing blood fast. Panting, they finally broke free of the forest, only to stop dead.

They were at a cliff-edge. Underneath them was a vast drop, with tons of fierce water pounding at the bottom. The chase was over.

Zuko was attempting to cauterize his wound with fire, which was a very stupid thing to do, and at any other time Katara would have told him. But at that moment she was rather preoccupied with the towering enemy closing in on them.

She had seen what fire nation soldiers did to defenseless people. In particular, injured women.

A deep rage seemed to build up within her. Aang, Sokka and she were trying to help the world. They were trying to re-unite the people. They were trying to restore balance. They were living on a flying bison, for crying out loud! Who would do that, unless they were trying to do something good? But everywhere they went, the fire nation tried to stop them. And now, now Zuko was trying to be a bloody hero and was stepping in front of her, that stupid wound leaking all over the place, and telling her something about a debt repaid.

She didn't want any debts repaid! She wanted to save the world! She wanted people to smile again, and for life to start being fair!

The raging of the river far below them fed into the rage inside her self, and without even knowing what she was doing, she raised her arms up. Her right arm blazed with pain, but she ignored it. She was _tired_ of things going wrong. She was _tired_ of people getting in their way. And she was _tired_ of Zuko always messing everything up!

And so, filled with both righteous and utterly irrational anger, she pulled forth the might of the river, and turned it full force on the fire nation men, sweeping them into the gorge.

"And don't come back!" She leant over to shout, and slipped. A moment of weightlessness, of pure 'oh no', before Zuko grabbed her arm, and pulled her back onto the cliff-edge.

She landed on him with a thump.

They lay there on the ground for a while, panting and trying to let the fact that they were still alive sink in, when a few other facts surfaced.

Katara was naked.

She was on top of Zuko.

They were holding hands (kinda).

And they were utterly lost.

"This is all your fault." Katara said, and then the pain overtook her, and she promptly passed out.


	10. Not Hungry

**Chapter Ten**

By the time Katara awoke from her pain-induced black-out, she had been dragged a few meters away from the cliff, and Zuko was awkwardly trying to put his shirt on her. After a bit of panicked screaming, some flailing and general misunderstandings, she sent him off to find something that could hold water.

Meanwhile, she used the puddles of water still lying around from the earlier display of bending to begin healing her arm. Wincing, she knew she wouldn't be able to heal all the damage with just the use of one hand. But she had healed enough that when Zuko came back, she was able to heal the damage to his side. He had done a fair enough job of burning the wound shut, but it was a messy business.

"You should have waited for me to heal you." Katara said absently as her hands smoothed water along his torso.

"I had to be able to move." He said shortly. Even though she was wearing his shirt, and her towel as a kind of skirt, he still found it difficult to look at her. For one thing, her outfit was so loose, and light. He had never seen her wearing less clothing. (Well, actually, he had, but he was trying very, very hard not to think about that, especially as she was so close to him. And besides, it was in the midst of great danger; therefore it didn't count, right? It wasn't like she had meant to be naked around him, it just kind of… happened.) And for another her hands were pressing against his bare chest, the water surrounding them deliciously cool against his skin, contrasting with the heat of his wounds, lulling him into a sort of slumber with their pleasant contradiction.

For a moment after she took her hands off him he remained in that peaceful repose, before the reality of their situation snapped him back to full attention. They were in strange terrain, lost in the middle of foreign woods, with little to no idea how they got there, and none whatsoever of how to get back.

And, furthermore, it was getting late and they were both very hungry. The heat of the day still rose from the hard-baked ground, but the sky was going to be moonless that night, and the prospect of stumbling around trees in the dark was not a nice one.

"We won't be able to get far if we set out tonight," Katara said, standing up and helping Zuko to his feet. "Aang and the others will probably come looking for us tomorrow morning on Appa, so the best thing we can do now is make camp for the night and make sure we stay in a clearing."

"It's too exposed here," Zuko said, looking at the bare cliff edges. "I'll go look for a nearby clearing and start a fire, you can go collect some food before it gets too dar-"

Before he managed to finish his sentence a low, spine-chilling growl came from the woods to their left. Another growl sounded off in response, making the hair on the back of Zuko's neck stand up. Katara's hand, stilling clutching his from when she helped him up, convulsively gripped him.

He looked down at her in surprise: this was the first time he had seen her display any kind of fear. From what he had seen of her in times of trouble (which he had usually been causing, but that is neither here nor there) she tended to get angry, and violent rather than scared. She would simply face the foe (him) head-on and whenever possible attack with her bending…

Her arm. In the gathering dusk he saw that sections of her arm were still sluggishly bleeding – she had been unable to fully heal it. She had managed to bend earlier, but that had been done from pure adrenaline, and had probably cost her a great deal more than she would like to admit. She was exhausted, disarmed, and incredibly vulnerable. Even if he didn't owe her his life several times over, Zuko didn't know he would have been able to abandon her.

"You know what? I don't feel very hungry after all." He said, and punched his stomach when it tried to growl in protest. "We had a big breakfast of … whatever that stuff was. Very filling."

"Yes," Katara said with a shaky smile, looking uncertainly at him. "We call it Jackrabbit-panda stew."

"And it would probably take you forever to gather any food, it always does." He said, still holding her hand as he started to wander towards the woods.

"What? At least I gather food! You just sit around and start fires!" She flared.

"Without fires you wouldn't be able to cook the food!"

"We managed to start fires before you arrived! There are ways to make fire other than with bending, you know!"

"Oh yeah?" Zuko was beginning to feel better already, and the cries of the wolf-bats were easily ignored as the two of them stormed through the woods, looking for a clearing. "Well water is really easy to collect by hand, a lot easier than all those loops you put it through when bending! In fact, you water-bending the water probably takes longer than the normal way!"

"If it wasn't for my water-bending, you would be dead!" She shouted as they stomped into a perfectly sized clearing.

"And if it wasn't for my fire-bending, neither of us would be able to see a thing right now!" Zuko shouted back, as he blasted a small tree down, then kicked it into the middle of the clearing and set it on fire.

"I don't need to see with fire, I can see just well without it!" Katara declared, and plunked herself down on the ground, cuddling her minimal clothing to herself.

"Fine!" Zuko said, and sat down with equal force. The howls of the wolf-bats had disappeared because of the fire, and the clearing was tight-knit, and comfortable.

"Good night!" Katara huffed, before rolling over and closing her eyes.

"Sleep well!" He snapped back, flopping onto his back and screwing his eyes shut.

A silence followed, where both of them pretended to be asleep and totally not at all worried about what they were going to do if Appa couldn't find them tomorrow, thank you very much, and neither were either of them the slightest bit worried about the other's injuries!

Nor, after a few more minutes, did Katara slowly open one eye and squint at Zuko, his back to her, and quietly whisper "Thank you."

And Zuko definitely did not smile in the darkness and reply with an even quieter "You're welcome."

Not at all.


	11. Not Important

**Chapter Eleven**

Their sleep, however, was not destined to be uninterrupted. Deep into the night, when the fire created by the poor, mangled tree had died down, the sound of music drifted into the clearing.

Zuko, with the many haunting memories of music night on the ship, awoke immediately and bended a fireball without thought. Katara, slower off the mark, struggled to awaken.

Zuko was by her side in an instant, dispelling the fire he had conjured. His hand, still warm from the flames, clamped over her mouth.

"That's a Tsungi," He hissed in her ear, "it's a Fire Nation instrument."

She pulled his hand off her mouth. "It doesn't really sound like one. It's too deep – it sounds more like an Earth Kingdom instrument."

"Trust me, I know what a Tsungi sounds like." Zuko shuddered slightly, "It has to be one of them."

"But who would be playing one out here?" In the darkness of the moonless night, their eyes met, slight flickers of fear in them. "We defeated those rhino guys, right? They couldn't come back – not from that." Zuko caught the slight catch in her voice at "that", and grimaced. Guilt, great. The last thing he needed to deal with now was helping someone through the emotional mess that was the aftermath of their first killing.

Not that he was terribly good with the whole 'guilt' thing, either. Maybe he had better leave that talk up to Iroh; he always seemed to know exactly what to say in such situations.

"Look! A light!" Katara hissed, pushing him away from her as she scrambled to her feet. Once again as her fingers left invisible burn marks across his skin; Zuko wished he had his shirt on. Well, not the one he had leant Katara, because that would be even more awkward. Maybe a spare shirt. Why hadn't Sokka given him a spare shirt anyway? The stingy guy.

He hauled himself back to reality in time to realize that Katara, unaware of the side-tracks Zuko's mind was wandering down, had started heading towards the light, barely visible through the trees.

"Wait, Katara!" He said, scrambling after her. Why on earth did that girl have so much trust in people? Why wasn't she heading in the exact opposite direction of the light? Surely that was the sensible thing to do!

"It might be Aang and Sokka, looking for us." She said when he caught up with her.

He grabbed her good arm, and turned her around to face him. "Why would they be playing a Tsungi? They probably don't even know how!" She checked at that, frowned, and then rubbed at her eyes.

"You're right," she started to say, but was interrupted when Zuko made what was scarily close to a purring sound.

"Say it again." He ordered.

"You're – " Katara, having grown up with Sokka, caught on remarkably quickly "an idiot who occasionally has a good point to make."

Zuko's smile vanished and was instantly replaced with a scowl. "Anyway," he said rather gruffly, "this is where we employ something you and the Avatar seem unfamiliar with: tactics."

Katara opened her mouth to retaliate, no doubt to reply "Yes, you were employing a lot of tactics when you were drifting on that raft the other day," or some such but Zuko was in full commander mode, and plowed on.

"There's no disguising where we come from, and that we're in trouble. However, there is also no point in letting them know that they're helping an exiled prince. Too many people would use that to their advantage." A pause, and with a sour twist to his expression he added, "And I suppose they would see some use in you, if they knew you were the Avatar's companion." It was the closest he had ever gotten to acknowledging her importance. Out loud, that is. Internally, he considered her an extremely important person: after all, she had saved _his_ life, and was his rescuer, and thus by tradition was the single most important person in his existence.

Not that he would ever say that to her.

"But we need food," Katara said, "and bandages." Her arm, still not fully healed, had had to be left unwrapped. They had no clean clothes, and nothing to bind it with. And although she had not complained, the strain of the pain from it made her seem paler, and less certain.

"Which is why we're going to pretend we are travelers, and our goods have accidentally caught fire. That will explain our strange clothing, and the burns on your arm. Hopefully they will be able to treat your wound." But unless they had a waterbender who could heal with them, or Katara managed to figure out how to heal herself completely with only one arm, she would have scars there for the rest of her life. Burn scars. Zuko tried not to think about that too much. "My name will be Lee, and you can be Jun. Try not to talk too much."

The glare she directed at him dispersed any notions of weakness. In the darkness, he smirked. This was the Katara he knew.

"Come on," She said, and stalked through the forest, straight towards the mournful sound of the Tsungi.


End file.
